David Irving, Holocaust Denial, and his Connections
to Right Wing Extremists and Neo-National Socialism
(Neo-Nazism) in Germany: Electronic Edition,
by Hajo Funke

5.5 1991: 'the total catastrophe' and how Irving reacted.

5.5.1.Irving was in Germany at least seven times in 1991 12-27 February, 22-26 March, 7-14 May, 5-12 June, 23/24 [?]-31 June, 6-10 November, and December. Again important passages are missing in Irving's diaries and attempts to reconstruct all of Irving's activities in the year must remain inconclusive. The missing entries are 29 March-24 April (25 April incomplete), 26-28 April, 30 April-6 May, 27 August-22 October, 4-5 November, 19-29 November, 31 November-22 January 1992.

5.5.2.Irving's February tour was mainly involved with seeking out NS witnesses for an American television documentary. On 12 February slept at Höffkes's grandparents' home and recorded his forthcoming DVU Passau speech 'just in case I am arrested first.'320 On 13 February Irving held a 'sparsely attended' press conference in Frankfurt.321 On 16 February Irving spoke at Passau (see above) and on 20 February he had dinner with Althans in Munich.322

5.5.3.In March Irving was again invited to speak at the second revisionist conference in Munich. On 22 March Irving met Althans 'at his office' in Munich and had dinner with W. R. Hess.323

5.5.4.On 23 March the revisionist campaign in Germany was meant to reach a new high point with a planned 'international revisionist congress' in Munich, organised under the title 'International Annual Meeting of Critical Contemporaries' ['Internationaler Jahrestagung kritischer Zeitgenossen']. This second revisionist conference was organised by Althans (and his AVÖ), Zündel, Reinhold Rade, and Stephan Niemannn 324Irving, who would seemed to have been still concerned about his public persona, wrote to reassure Frey 'As far as the 23.3. is concerned, the theme of my talk is "Churchill in World War II". I therefore expect no difficulties from the authorities.'325

5.5.5.Althans had hired the hall of the German Museum in Munich that could hold 2,400 people. That the congress did not take place as planned was due only to the determination of the museum administration. A ban ['Veranstaltungsverbot'] by the local district administration [Kreisverwaltungsamt] was overturned by the administrative court [Verwaltungsgericht], but the museum held firm despite the threat of claims for compensation. On the evening before the congress the higher administrative court [Oberverwaltungsgericht] decided in favour of the museum because of 'wilful deceit' ['arglistiger Täuschung'] by Althans who had booked the hall under a false title. The revisionists were nevertheless allowed to hold a vigil ['Mahnwache'] in front of the museum.

5.5.6.In the filmed record of the protest Althans announced that David Irving, Mark Weber, Ahmed Rami, Wilhelm Stäglich, Fred Leuchter, Dietlieb Felderer, Nancy Lang, Jerome Brennter, Ernst-Otto Remer, and Mrs. Rost von Tonningen were to have spoken. The speakers at the improvised protest meeting included Irving, Althans, Rost von Tonningen, Ahmed Rami, Henri Rocques, Wilhelm Stäglich, Dietlieb Felderer, Christian Worch (responsible for "security"), Raimund Bachmann, and Pedro Varela who conveyed the greetings of Leon DeGrelle.326 The Bavarian VSB claimed that Meinolf Schönborn was also present.327 Zündel was unable to speak as he had been arrested the evening before.328

5.5.7.Irving recorded the fiasco in his diary, no longer willing to incur arrest after his experience at the first conference.

Althans arrives around 9:30 a.m., and after discussion I agree we speakers should go to the hall steps to meet the press; but not to make speeches. At the steps..., I speak with Seipl, police commander; her [Sic] confirms that people will be allowed to speak only on the Vertragskündigung, [cancelled contract] nothing else. This again showed Althans lied to us - he doesn't care if we get arrested. I consequently speak only two minutes, telling the crowd (around 400 hardy soulds [Sic] braving the blustery weather) that I am not allowed to speak.329

5.5.8.The next day Irving attended a press conference given by Althans in Munich, but 'no press'.330

5.5.9.On the 25 March Irving attended 'a new press conference by Althans (who was missing!) and Leuchter, who read out his report endlessly. Further shambles.'331 The same day Irving met 'local NPD agent' Renate Werlberger to arrange details of a meeting for 12 May.332

5.5.10.The period April to May is impossible to reconstruct with any degree of certainty. It is worthy of note that Michael Kühnen died of AIDS, 25 April 1991.333

5.5.11.In May Irving returned to Germany. On 10 May Irving spoke in Rothenburg to the GfP on 'the future of the German people between England and Russia' ['Die Zukunft d. dt. Volkes zwischen Engländern u. Russen.'334 On 11 May Irving spoke in Munich to the Rudolf Hess Society ['Rudolf-Heß-Gesellschaft'] on the fiftieth anniversary of Hess's flight to England.335 'Frl. Fath (R[udolf]H[ess]'s secretary) was in the audience which made it so much better.'336

5.5.12.On 12 May Irving talked to the Munich NPD.337 The meeting was organised with Frau Werlberger, 'a local NPD agent'.338 According to later court documents the meeting had been advertised under the rubric,

The famous contemporary historian, under the topic "Germany's future in the shadow of political extortion", will for the first time give his opinion "if the Germans and their European neighbours can still afford to tolerate contemporary history as a political instrument of extortion". 339

5.5.13.The NPD was informed that the meeting could only go ahead if they took the responsibility that Irving only speak about the persecution of the Jews in the Third Reich as far as he did not deny it.340 Hence Werlberger wrote to Irving 'We have only the request that you avoid mention of the word "Auschwitz", in your own interest and in the interests of the party which is bound by the present conditions.'341 Just how far Irving complied with the request is evident from a (incomplete) recording of the meeting. Referring to legends that he may not mention, Irving proclaimed, 'In three, four years at the latest these legends will no longer hold water. The legend will be over and then the tables will be turned, then the whole [drowned out in applause]'342 Few in his audience can have had any doubt as to which 'legends' Irving was referring to.

5.5.14.On 14 May Irving had breakfast with Reinhard Rade. Althans was due to have joined them but didn't. 343

5.5.15.On 5 June Irving attended a function of the Danubia student fraternity [Studentenschaft] in Munich.344 The following day Irving met Althans.345 On 7 June Irving dinned with Althans, Susie Töpler (Reinhard Rade's fiancee), and other guests at Althans's house. The company later went on to a beer hall where they met Ursula Worsch.346 On 8 June Irving signed books at Althans' AVÖ bookshop in Herzog-Heinrich-Strasse in Munich. Irving recorded in his diary, 'It is an impressive effort by Althans (though Susie [Töpler] told me later that Reinhard Rade has financed it and is the title holder, as Althans's creditworthiness is not much at present). About 150 to 200 people came during the time I was there, including familiar faces.'347 On 10 June Irving met the Worschs in Munich and spent the day with Töpler and Rade.348

5.5.16.Intestine quarrels were slowly brewing between Althans and Philipp, crippling Irving's planned July - August tour. On 1 July 1991, Althans faxed Irving 'Two pages of hysteria', announcing the collapse of the forthcoming July / August tour.349

...now it's come to this. The total catastrophe. The speeches of 25.07 to 17.08 will not take place. I have to give up.

I can picture you now foaming with rage. And I am very scared that we will fall out again over this.[...]

You yourself know what kind of a position I have been in since the Leuchter Congress. Now it's got worse.350

5.5.17.Althans complained that he was plagued by the bailiffs, his phone had been cut off, and that trips to the former east Germany required time and money, neither of which he had. A banned meeting had been broken up with truncheons. The bookshop had become subject to numerous attacks making it necessary to guard it. Comrades, like Harder [Ulrich?] were proving incapable of acting responsibly or autonomously. Worst of all, Philipp was conducting a whispering campaign against him.

Thus for example K[arl] P[hilipp] has managed to incite Gen.[eral] Remer and presumably G.[erd] Honsik against me. They in turn have managed to stir things up more with their naive innocence (you know how much I value Remer and Honsik).351

5.5.18.Since February Althans had been on trial in Stuttgart and was threatened with a long imprisonment.

Perhaps one would have got somewhere if we had been at the meeting. There were a lot of people there upon whose supportive assistance I could have hoped. But Karl Philipp, who knew that you were coming because I was stupid enough to register you as a guest as required, lied to you that I wanted to use you to break up the event. You believed him and cancelled with me. So Philipp could tell people Althans is a liar, even David Irving doesn't like him and therefore dosen't come to the conference. And, as expected, I alone received no invitation.352

5.5.19.This passage presumably relates to a meeting that had taken place between Irving and Althans in Munich on 11 June. '[Althans] Also suggests I come to Munich two days June 28 for a confrontation with Karl Philipp and Faurisson at Nuremberg. What the ---?'353

5.5.20.This in turn is with certainty related to the NF's intention, announced at its national congress on 6 April, to also hold a revisionist campaign in June (originally in Roding in Cham, Bavaria) under the slogan 'Down with the Holocaust' ['Schluß mit dem Holocaust']. The list of those who were to speak was almost identical to that in Munich.354 The Bavarian VSB for 1991 recorded the intention to hold the same congress. Speakers were to have been NF leader Meinolf Schönborn, Faurisson, Remer, Stäglich, and Philipp. The conference was banned. Despite the ban 150 people gathered in Roding, only to be cleared out of the meeting rooms by police. Some 150 NF supporters fought with police, leading to two arrests and hurt policemen and neo-Nazis. An later attempt to hold the congress in the evening led to 38 arrests.355

5.5.21.Karl Phillip wrote to Irving on 4 July boasting about the meeting in Cham where he had successfully held a meeting for Dr. Schaller and Faurisson despite a concerted police effort to break up the meeting.

That was a masterpiece by Meinolf Schönborn and his people. We should take it in mind to do something with him in late Autumn. He is really a soldier and everything goes off with military discipline and according to military organisation. He has almost 400 young people around him who follow his commands.356

5.5.22.The nuances of the dispute are unclear, but the conclusions are inescapable. Irving was no mere hired speaker to the neo-Nazis or in the revisionist movement, but had the political weight to support or undermine political positions and alliances within both scenes.357 That Philipp, who had now known and worked with Irving for almost two years, should try and impress Irving with tales of his own conspiratorial skills and Schönborn's violent antics, speaks for Irving's tastes.

5.5.23.Irving promptly sent a circular to Karl Höffkes and Philipp asking if they, or anyone they knew, could fill in at such short notice and organise anything. Irving was willing to agree on 'a topic acceptable to the authorities' ['ein den Behörden genehmes Thema vereinbaren'].358 Irving likewise wrote to Zündel.

I am of course alarmed, sorry, and annoyed. It is unprofessional to say the least of Althans. We have been planning this four week tour of Mitteldeutschland [central Germany] since Leuchtercongeß [Leuchter congress]. For him to abandon it giving me three weeks' notice is unhelpful. I have ordered a thousand books, etc. I am now left hanging around like a spare prick at a wedding! The only items that survive are Hamburg (which I arranged, after he failed to contact Ulrich Harder for weeks); Bonn, and (weeks later) Wunsiedel. I doubt personally that Wunsiedel will come off this year, but one must be an optimist.

What can we do? Do you have any independent people there, anybody in the major cities who could set up isolated events for me on the lines of Stuttgart last September, which was a brilliant success?

Needless to say, I have the utmost faith in you. You are a professional. You know the law in both Canada and Germany, and keep within it, so far as I can judge. [...]

I do of course appreciate the serious personal problems Althans is facing, which must be a serious disappointment for him. Sometimes we have to hang strong. Those times are now. I am very sorry that we are losing Mittledeutschland [central Germany] like this.359

5.5.24.Irving also asked Ulrich Harder if he could arrange anything at short notice. Harder regretted he could do nothing.

I'm sorry that I can't give you any better news. You know that I have always made a great effort for you because I think you are simply fantastic and indispensable to Germany. And I certainly also have some contacts. Nevertheless not sufficient in central Germany, [as] we from the NPD are still in the process of initially building them up and this will still take a little time.360

5.5.25.Philipp likewise replied in the negative.361 Zündel wrote that he had contacted Carl-Arthur Bühring, Michael Schönborn, and had tried to contact Walendy for Irving.362

5.5.26.Between Philipp, Althans, Harder, and Zündel the tour managed to go ahead.363 Irving toured accompanied by Susanne Töpler.364 Diary entries 21 - 24 July 1991 are missing, but Zündel had suggested a book-signing at the AVÖ bookshop in Munich on the 23 July, which he suggested he also attend 'as an additional drawing card.'365 Irving had been booked to speak in Augsburg, as arranged by Althans.366 This is possibly a meeting arranged with Michael Swierczek.367 There is no record of whether the meeting took place, but alone Irving's willingness is indicative. Irving had originally planned to stay overnight with Althans.368

5.5.27.On 24 July Irving spoke in Stuttgart (Degerloch) at the invitation of Carl-Arthur Bühring on 'German history seen today' ['Deutsche Geschichte aus heutiger Sicht.']369 Irving thanked Klaus Ewald for the meeting.370 On 25 July Irving visited Philipp in Frankfurt. Once again the milieu in which Irving operated is clear. 'He [Philipp] showed us [Irving and Töpler] the latest paste up of the Remer Depesche on which he is working. It is good. I asked if Otto Ernst Remer is not fearful of being prosecuted: Ph.[ilipp] said that is what Remer wants.'371

5.5.28.On 26 July Irving spoke at an NPD meeting in Hamburg (Harburg) arranged by Ulrich Harder. The meeting obviously produced a lot of resonance. Harder wrote to Irving over two months later, 'Your speech in Hamburg in July is still being discussed. It was magnificent and you really are an outstanding contemporary.'372 On 27 July Irving attended a garden party thrown by Dietmar Munier of the Arndt Verlag.373 On 30 July Irving spoke at a meeting at Bonn University given by Andreas Jahrow and organised by Althans.374

5.5.29.On 17 August Irving was to have spoken at Wunsiedel at the annual Rudolf-Hess-Memorial March.375 Remembering that 1) Irving had refused to appear on the same platform as Kühnen at Wunsiedel the year before, 2) that Worch had chosen Kühnen over Irving because the movement owed more to Kühnen (implying that Irving was nevertheless a contender), and 3) that in the meantime Kühnen had died, it is important to remember exactly what the march was. Worch's NL had played an important part in Rudolf-Hess-Memorial marches in Wunsiedel since 1989, and it constituted one of the main organisational focuses of the NL.376 The 1991 march (and the replacement demonstration) was organised together with the NO. The NA was likewise to have taken part in 1991.377 This made the march one of the annual highlights of the German neo-Nazi calendar.

5.5.30.A flyer for the meeting, under the title 'National Collective in need!'['Nationale Sammlung tut not!'] give the tenor of the meeting.

We won't put up with it any more! Don't be deterred[.] Should a ban be made public again this year by the press and television, don't be deterred by it.! Let's fight together! In August 1990 we showed the anarchists what for - they ran like hares - ! The reds and anarchists must be driven from the streets! Comrades, the streets have to be ours again, because >the right is coming again[.]378

5.5.31.Worch writing to Irving in 1990 had justified his choice of Kühnen with the words, 'Especially - and this needs to be stressed here - because from the beginning Wunsiedel marches have been political events and not about historical revisionism.'379 Presumably nothing had changed in the meantime. The march was ultimately banned and 2,000 people demonstrated in Bayreuth against the ban.380 It is not clear up to what point Irving remained ready to appear.

5.5.32.On 8 September Irving had been asked to hold a speech in Neuss a meeting of the Neuss branch of the Association of Expellecs [Bund der Vertriebenen], an invitation he accepted. The invitation was cancelled when the city hall in Neuss threatened to cancel the contract for the hall if Irving appeared as a speaker.381

5.5.33.Irving's November tour had been originally planned for 1 -7 November.382 On 5 November Zündel was tried in Munich and a demonstration was planned by the AVÖ.383 Irving had recorded in his diary that he '...phoned Zündel. Using codenames, it turns out he and Leuchter will be in Munich for Z[ündel]'s trial Nov 5; that we shall all confer in Pforzheim, Nov 6.'384 On 29 October Zündel had asked Irving if he could arrive earlier in Germany. 'No change [chance?] of being in München for a press conference on the 4 and or 5th evenings? French National T.V. will send a crew and Bavarian T.V. as well.'385 The diary entries for 4 and 5 November are missing.

5.5.34.On 6 November the town hall in Pforzheim was booked for Irving's lecture on 'New Europe' ['Neues Europa'], but an advertisement in the Pforzheimer Zeitung led the hall to cancel, supported by the city administration [Stadthallenverwaltung].386 Instead the meeting took place in the restaurant Adler in Büchenbron outside Pforzheim. Both venues were organised by Christian Democratic Union [CDU] politician Dr. Manfrid Dreher. Dreher had contacted Irving through Zühdel.387 Dreher and Irving had met in London previous to the meeting, and Irving had even persuaded Dreher to buy surplus stocks of his books in Germany on his behalf, the money to be repaid later.388 Irving described the meeting.

We left for Dreher's factory, and waited there interminably. Dreher there, eventually joined by Zündel and Leuchter. Dreher has lost the town hall, moved the venue to a restaurant in nearby village. Spoke there, late, for two hours. British (Thames) and Danish, French and WDR TV there. Good atmosphere...389390

5.5.35. The television teams Irving had unexpectedly brought with him, the presence of Zündel and Leuchter, Irving's deviation from the advertised topic, and Irving's notoriety all contributed to the subsequent scandal.391 Over the next two years Dreher, a highly respected member of the CDU, had to fight off several attempts to have him expelled from the party. Moreover, as a result of Irving's appearance, Dreher was stripped of the FRG's highest civil order [Bundesverdienstkreuz], an almost unique event in the history of the country.392 Although Dreher was later keen to distance himself from the content of Irving's speech it would appear that this was a cosmetic measure. On 12 July 1991 he had written to Irving saying 'I have already been thinking about how we can hold the event from a "neutral stand point".'393 Dreher also later dictated Irving's expected explanation of events to him.394

5.5.35. On 7 November 1991: Irving spoke in Hamburg (Harburg) organised by the NPD's Ulrich Harder who was present at the meeting.395 On 8 November Irving spoke in Lentförden [Segeberg] to the 'Friends Circle "A Heart for Germany"' [Freundeskreis "Ein Herz für Deutschland"], again organised by Harder.396 The Minister of the Interior of Schleswig Holstein ordered a partial speaking ban ['eingeschränktes Redeverbot'] which was handed to Irving at the meeting.397 The ban demonstratively failed to deter Irving, who proceeded to read out its contents to the audience .398 Neither did the ban do anything to dampen Irving's feelings of success. He later thanked the Worchs for their efforts 'which lead to a successful event in Lentförden' ['...die zur erfolgreichen Veranstaltung in Lentförden führten.'].399

5.5.36.The constellation of neo-Nazis Irving had failed to speak to at Wunsiedel were addressed by Irving on 9 November in Halle, an open-air rally he attended at the suggestion of Ursula Wosch 'as the meeting planned for Aachen has fallen through.'400 The rally had been organised by Thomas Dienel, in co-operation with Christian and Ursula Worch, as a nationwide affair. This well co-ordinated demonstration included groups and members of various neo-Nazi groups within the GdNF including the NL, 'Deutsches Hessen', the DA, and was attended by, amongst others, prominent neo-Nazis Gottfried Küssel of the Austrian VAPO and Otto Riehs.

5.5.37.Amid a sea of waving Reich war-flags and NL and DA banners Irving addressed a prominently skin-head audience. During the speeches given by Irving, Worch, and Dienel, the audience at times broke into rhythmic cries of 'Germany for the Germans' ['Deutschland den Deutschen'], 'Foreigners out' ['Ausländer Raus'] and made the illegal Nazi salute 'Sieg Heil'. Irving himself recorded that 'I spoke first, a rabble rousing ten or fifteen minutes, with loud cheering, and alas some shouts of Sieg Heil to which I admonished, "Let's have no calls from the past; it's the [illegible word] that counts".'401 The video record of the meeting shows Irving merely making a weak gesture of disapproval.402

5.5.38.As if Irving's presence on a neo-Nazi platform were not enough, the rally took place at a time when Germany was in the grips of a vicious wave of attacks against foreigners.

5.5.39.Irving returned to Germany in December On 6 December he spoke at the first 'nationale Großkundgebung' of the DVU in Passau.403 From 9 - 11 December Irving was in Hamburg apparently in connection with a court case with the German publisher Rowohlt.404

324. Fromm, pp. 19-20; A document ['Kreisverwaltungsreferat Hauptabteilung I/11, Besprechung am 15.03.1991, p.1] listed Althans and Niemann as organisers ['Veranstalter'] and Rade simply as 'Kreisrat der REP'. See Drahtzieher im braunen Netz, p. 22. 'I trust that Althans has contacted you in regard to the now-on-again Great European Revisionist Congress in Munich on 23 March 1991. You are of course, to be one of the star speakers [...] Major media like the leftist TAZ and Spiegel-TV have already expressed a keen interest in the event.' Ernst Zündel to Irving, 16 February 1991.

328.
Drahtzieher im braunen Netz, pp. 21-22. 'Meeting with Althans at his office. News almost im[ ]mediately that Ernst Zündel is in Germany, from Canada, indeed has been arrested by police on old (January) warrents re "libelling the dead." So that puts him away for some weeks if not months, and may have disastrous effects on his case in Canada (not showing up for bail). What an idiot.' Diary entry, 22 March 1991.

357. Two years later Irving showed the same influence in discussions about Althans. 'On Althans: confidentially, one of his lieutenants was here this weekend, is taking charge of my book stocks, though he says Althans helped himself to stacks of them. A. also has strange habits with funds donated to the organisation, says my source. I have suggested that they hold a Generalmitgliederversammlung [general members' meeting] and decide what to do with A., who is damaging the Bewegung [movement] by his antics and his close contacts to the media.' Irving to Ernst Zündel, 1 October 1993.

362. Ernst Zündel to Irving, 4 July 1991. See also Ernst Zündel to Irving, 8 July 1991

363. 'I think we should liaise on coming events some time. My provisional timetable looks something like this:-/ July 14 to August 15 in Mitteldeutschland on "tour".' Irving to Ernst Zündel, 29 April 1991. 'Needless to say, I am both gratful and impressed by the way in which your people are springing into action.' Irving to Ernst Zündel, 8 July 1991. See also Irving to Ernst Zündel, 3 July 1991; Ernst Zündel to Irving, 3 July 1991.

374. Diary entry, 30 July 1991. Jahrow went on to become a member of the 1994 grounded Europaburschenschaft Armina Zürich zu Heidelberg. See Mecklenburg, pp. 329-30 for details. For Althans see Ewald Althans to Irving, 5 July 1991; diary entry, 26 June 1991.

386. Günter Ihlenfeld [Stadthalle Pforzheim] to Dr. Manfrid Dreher, 4 November 1991. Ihlenfeld based their decision on Irving's theories being 'falsifications of history and contemptuious of humanity' {'geschichtsfälschenden und menschenverachtenden Thesen'] and as such a danger to public order.

387. Ernst Zündel to Irving, 11 July 1991. See also Ernst Zündel to Irving, 17 October 1991. 'I would like to discuss all this with you [details of 'the Leuchter project'] in Munich on the 4th or 5th November the day of my trial there! You speak in Pforzheim on the 6th to about 400 people, good quality types!' See further Diary entry, 23 October 1991. '...phoned Zündel. Using codenames, it turns out he and Leuchter will be in Munich for Z's trial Nov 5; that we shall all confer in Pforzheim, Nov 6. That he needs Leuchter until Nov. 9, when L[euchter] becomes our concern.'

389. Diary entry, 6 November 1991. The television presence had been organised by Irving. See diary entries, 23 October and 29 October 1991.See also Irving to Sushma Puri, 29 October 1991; Irving to Sushma [Puri], 31 October 1991. The meeting was also apparently monitored by the police. See 'Aus der polizeilichen Niederschrift von Irving-Aussagen während des Vortrags in Büchenbronn am 6.11.91.,'n.d.

390. Irving was accompanied some of the way by Danish and British (Thames) television.

393. 'Ich habe mir schon Gedanken gemacht, wie wir die Veranstalung unter einem "neutralen Gesichtspunkt" abhalten können. See also Ernst Zündel to Irving, 28 December 1991. 'Dr. Dreher called me repeatedly, he wants a [indesciferable word]letter faxed to his office, by you, to explain why you spoke not on the topic of "Deutschland im Neuen Europa" ["Germany in New Europe"] but instead lashed out at your enemies. He is a good contact and I would appreciate any help you can be to him at this time of his baptism of fire. He can be very useful to the cause in the future.'

398. 'Police handed me a Verordnung of Kreis Segeburg, what I am not allowed to say, in such detail that I could not reits [resist] the temptation to read out the whole document, stressing at each paragraph, "I am not allowed to say that either...!".' Diary entry, 8 November 1991.